JustHewIt

This. If the boys can use it and come out as the more physical team, then the game is going to be a lot of fun for us The chiefs part is most annoying to me though....as if we didn't put up the "perfect game" two years ago when it was like zero degrees in the playoffs

Agree. Plus I'm sure we have staff prepping for KC already, while KC has to keep two teams on their radar

All the crybabies would have had us throwing in the towel at 6-6 and firing everyone. And they would have missed out on one of the great division titles in our franchise history

This is great post, this is what message boards (and pub sports talk) are all about You play him. If the wild card matchup was more favorable, maybe it's a thought. But the path as the 2 seed is SO much easier...Pitt/ind/hou at home round one, plus one of KC and MIA goes out immediately (they both know us better than anyone), that's massive. Then another home game, avoiding the ravens in round two Then if the ravens lose, we stay home for the CG. Come on now.

Like, I respect what you guys are saying and that these close games against lesser teams don't feel great. But what specifically do you feel our defense did wrong? The other poster said to hold them to 170 yards. That would be 2.61 yards per play. Seems a bit unreasonable to me. This is still an NFL offense with a system that has been super productive over the years. Do other teams look at our banged up defense and say "They're missing three all pros, two other pro bowlers, their best linebacker is running around with a banged up ankle, and their 100 million dollar pass rusher is useless. Why didn't we score 50 pts!!!!" Perhaps their backups and young players aren't god awful? What do you actually know about their third string center?

Did they? They had 273 yards on 65 plays, took five sacks, and kicked a bunch of field goals thanks in part to great drive starts after turnovers. That yards per play would rank at the bottom of the league, looking at season long averages

I really want to crap all over the negative ninnies who gave been ruining this message board all season, but instead, shout out to all the real fans that have stuck by this team to this point. I hope you're enjoying the hell out of one of the great wins of the Josh era. I know my victory scotch is tasting amazing right now

I can't believe how many people were in other threads this week saying that McD is a fraud, he's not genuine, the team doesn't support him. Gimme a break. This team is motivated and pissed off, and is completely together. Y'all should get on board. It could be special.

Believe it or not, I can think you guys put way too much stock in the media and overreact AND agree McD has sucked late in games AND think that he's a hell of a lot more accomplished than 90 percent of NFL coaches and be willing to support him to work through our current situation. The social media police can't even do anything about it.

If you only judged bill belichick off his press conferences, you'd probably come to the conclusion that he was a insecure douche bag loser also. The idea that press conferences reflect the success of day to day operations of an NFL team is the problem. I get it, that's all fans have to cling to and dopa-hits from posting on social media and having your opinions validated feels good. But it still doesn't necessarily mean anything. It's media, it's embellished and twisted and slanted and manipulated, in both directions

So, just to be clear on this point, people are upset because he didn't come out and line by line substantiate every negative thing that a slew of anonymous people said by a reporter that isn't credentialed to cover the team? Why do people think that we're all entitled to hear about every word and thing that happens behind closed doors, or every private thought that the team shares with each other, and if we don't hear about it then it didn't happen? We didn't even hear about the 9/11 thing for four years, but by all accounts he took accountability then behind closed doors. Why are we so quick to assume that he doesn't do the same with other things and we just don't hear about it? There's absolutely nothing good that can come of engaging with the press on this stuff, especially in the world of social media where this sort of outrage happens daily. All it can do is cause distractions, misinterpretations, and drama. It's three days before our biggest game of the season, and somehow because McD didn't come out and address a playoff game failure from two years ago, or he doesn't come to every press conference like a sad sack to talk about how much of a spineless loser he is, that means that he's a clueless tyrant behind closed doors and everyone hates him.

Everyone is writing off tiebreakers, but we have five conference losses while most others have 3 or 4. If we go 4-0 in conference and they drop a couple AFC games, it's not unreasonable to think that we can still get a tiebreaker over the teams we haven't lost to directly

I think there's a lot of talk about our conference record being so bad (because it is currently), but it's common in recent history for teams to get in with 5 (or even 6) conference losses. I wouldn't write us off completely at 10-7 as long as we go 4-0 against the AFC from here on out. All the teams around us still play each other, and we haven't lost to Houston/Pitt/Cleveland/Indy so they don't have that tiebreaker. Not that it'll feel any better if we don't take this game, but, just to dispel the notion that every game is a must win from here on out--I think the NFC games are the ones that we can afford to lose, if any

First off, thank you Shaw for taking the time to post this. Been lurking around here and the BBMB since College in 2004/05 and have been a long time fan of your takes and writing. While I can't argue with the above statement, I feel like the team has become way sloppier and less disciplined overall since McD took over the D. Especially on Special Teams, where outside of Bass we've been terrible. There's never been a doubt that McDermott can coach a defense--it always felt like he was able to step in and right the ship when we'd slump with Frazier. But I can't help but wonder if we'd be better off and have more wins overall if he had hired a D-Coordinator and continued to focus on overseeing all three phases. It feels like he empowered those guys to run with their respective units, and it's sort of blown up in his face. I'd be surprised if he was gone regardless of our final record, but if he does end up getting canned, I think that decision is his un-doing.

Why do we as a fanbase care so much about this? Does it somehow help the performance of the team to be the heavily favored juggernaut of the league? If we start 4-0 next year, we'll once again be touted as a super bowl favorite. If anything, you'd rather be doubted--look at the Bengals, who use every scrap of doubt they can to get really ticked off before each game

The dolphins lost like five straight when they started playing good teams. They're not the near-powerhouse everyone thinks they are and everyone will continue to adjust to what their coach likes to do. It's hard to score points and win consistently with no explosive plays and no running game. The Pats are so far away on offense. You just can't win 11-12 games scoring 20ppg or less. The Jets with a good vet QB, that defense, and the easier last place schedule will be frisky Not sure why everyone thinks we're going to be so much worse without massive upgrades. There was one team that handled us this year and they may win the super bowl. Believe it or not, top five QBs usually win a lot of games.

Schrager has just become Bill Simmons' mouthpiece, he can't jeopardize his weekly spot on Bill's podcast where he gets to feel like the he's part of the cool kid gang with Solak and the Ringer crew. It's too bad, because he's well connected and squanders it with constant made for tv hot takes backed up by nothing

We're fragile? Lol. We're fans defending our players on our message board after Mixon made some random, weird comparison to the Ravens that was obviously meant to be a slight. You've now traveled to an opposing team's message board and posted the same defense about 20 times tonight. Projection much? It's not life or death, sure, but you seem hell bent on making your point.

We're in a mini slump, that's obvious, but we're WINNING. The chiefs struggled to beat a few teams and lost to the colts. The eagles have struggled to beat teams and lost to Washington by more than all of our losses combined. Dallas, Baltimore, Miami, Minnesota.... Show me the team that never struggles, and then take the state of our defense into account. Are you saying that last two games where we had one total practice and played twice in five days on the road are more representative of this team than our impressive wins? You don't think Edmunds, Elam, Groot, von, Hyde, Tre would help with those tackling issues? Dream on man

I didn't say it's fine, but I think it's fair to lower expectations slightly and allow some grace when you're playing replacement level talent against a good, productive offense. But hey, good on you for holding such high standards, it obviously helps you enjoy the wins so much

Perhaps missing 4-5 pro bowl caliber players has something to do with that? Regardless of that this message board thinks, it's unreasonable to expect us to have an entire starting lineup PLUS a backup at every position that can play at a pro bowl level every game

I'm thrilled with this win. This is exactly the way we need to win when the offense isn't humming. Today's unsexy offense is good enough for 25-30 points almost any game. Then our D chips in a turnover or two. If we had played this way in our losses we may be undefeated.

Every game we have times where Devin starts to cook and then is rested the very next drive. Motor is a better runner, receiver, and blocker and we need him out there. This idea that he needs to rest every other drive is so frustrating, let him get a feel for the game like we did at the end of last season when he was tearing it up

Lol. Whatever makes y'all feel better

I'm so glad I didn't look at this board at halftime. Go Bills